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Sports Features of Friday, 8 March 2013

Source: Raymond Yeboah

Amidaus CEO is living in a fool’s paradise

I sometimes still don’t understand why in this age when Ghanaian football keeps maturing professionally, somebody like Alhaji Baba Geldo of Amidaus Professionals fame will allow himself to get entangled in unfounded allegations.

Match fixing in Association Football is a serious canker which needs a machination of sufficient proof in order to prosecute the one found guilty. That’s why a whole football governing body FIFA in a way of uprooting this menace, created an official site for ‘whistle blowers’ to come out with various evidences.

The allegation by Amidaus CEO that Berekum Chelsea through their bankroller, Mr Kyeremeh bribed some of their players before beating them at their own backyard in Glo Ghana Premier League Match Day 17 is unfounded, a hoax and lacks validity.

When Amidaus came all the way from their Tema base to beat Chelsea at Berekum Golden City P ark in the first round of the league, what did the so-called Baba Geldo say about it? Are Amidaus that unbeatable in the league that clubs like Chelsea have to bribe their players before triumphing over them?

Any fixed match has a little bit of lies around it from the spectators’ point of view, was the said match like that? Baba Geldo must come out with these questions in his own conscience. Ghana football is no longer in those dark ages where anybody at all without any evidence makes unofficial claims against any great teams. lf Chelsea refused to bribe the likes of T P Mazembe, Al Ahly, Zamalek and the rest of the big guns in Africa in the CAF Champions League, then who is Baba Geldo and his Amidaus team who are only making their debut in the elite league with only one motive – to avoid relegation.

Allegations of bribery is not about jumping from one radio station to another to make your point known to the public, rather all the evidences must be gathered before the bigwigs of the game. I challenge the Ethics Commitee of the GFA to summon Baba Geldo to come out with this so called evidence and he must be punished if he fails to present one. Any allegation irrespective of where and how it came into being mustn’t be tolerated to destruct the good image of the Ghanaian league. The Ethics Committee must cultivate the English Premier League way of dealing with any verbal allegation against an opponent like what they did to Mikel Obi of Chelsea for alleged racism claim against referee Mark Clattenburg.

The village days of football is over so with the capacity of Baba Geldo in the Amidaus team, I thought he should know better.